Why Brownridge, a 68-year-old former Wenner Media executive would take a celebrity magazine job in the teeth of a recession after edging toward retirement was a bit puzzling. But he sees a big upside in OK!, which increased ad pages by 23 percent last year—one of a scant few magazines to show significant page growth in ’08.

As far as ideas, there’s nothing terribly novel about Brownridge’s approach—just a renewed focus on “mass-market” categories (“luxury items are not useful in this economy,” he said) and an increased volume of sales calls—15 face-to-face calls per OK!’s 12 salespersons per week.

His comments, transcribed: “This is not some avant-garde idea,” Brownridge said. “This is power-selling.”

“Our theory is not to spend a lot of time dickering on rates. We offer our best rate from the get-go, we put our best rate out there. None of this timidly put a rate out there, have them come back, then we say we’ll split the difference. Not this back and forth. It’s a rather annoying and irritating process.”

Also, don’t expect any new product launches from OK! in 2009. Said Brownridge: “Anyone who is talking about Web launches has probably given up the ghost, and has a bit of a pipe dream to save their business.”